The Regent Street restaurant’s exterior signs give no indication of the restaurant’s name. They just say “FOOD” and “EAT.”

At first, the restaurant’s hours were hard to find online. I showed up once for dinner and twice for lunch to find it closed.

Those frustrating experiences brought back memories about trying to go to Borokhim’s restaurants, Layla’s on Butler Street, and the original, but short-lived Noosh on Park Street, and having similar bad luck. Borokhim also runs a Noosh food cart.

However, it’s worth persevering because the Jewish-inspired world cuisine is almost across-the-board wonderful. What’s more, Borokhim is a jovial host who has done an amazing job transforming a little Regent Street Quonset hut into a charmingly attractive dining room.

Borokhim opened nuuNoosh in November. It’s named for her 6-year-old son, who she calls “Noosh” a Persian term of endearment. Nuu means “come along,” she told an older couple having lunch one recent weekday. It can also mean “Come on!”

There’s a big school portrait of Borokhim’s son on the desk when you walk into the restaurant. There’s also a good-sized lounge with a children’s play table. Borokhim’s personality fills the rest of the space as she takes orders, cooks and serves the food, often whistling as she works.

The menu is deceptively small, at first appearing to have only three choices. But on closer inspection each of the three menu items — dumplings, malawach and shakshuka — are categories with two or three appealing options. Everything is priced at $10 and Borokhim only takes cash.

Skip the one-note lentil soup ($2/$4) packed with lentils, and made slightly lemony with sumac. Many of Borokhim’s dishes are served with yogurt sauce, and the soup would have benefited from some, too.

Dumplings are a must, and the choices include chicken and mushroom pelmeni or cheese and potato pierogi. The pelmeni were shaped like tortellini and came in a deep bowl with onions and cubed beets, which took on a greenish-beige hue from the spices involved. Braised cabbage, yogurt sauce and fried onion added color, texture and flavor.

The malawach, an open-faced Yemeni sandwich made on a flat puff pastry, was remarkable because of its crispy base and tender, perfectly-marinated, slow-cooked lamb. Yogurt sauce and fried onion enhanced it. On the plate was a delightful spring salad with small cucumber slices, tomatoes and shredded carrot. It just needed a little salt.

When my friend raved about the fried flatbread, Borokhim told her it was “just flour and water.” Then she remembered the third ingredient: Oil. And that’s key. It’s what makes it taste so delicious.

The dish I could have done without was the shakshuka, as it’s called “in the land of milk and honey,” the menu says, referring to Israel. The stew, brought to Israel by Jewish immigrants from Tunisia, was made by Borokhim with tomatoes, peas and artichoke hearts. It had a strong flavor only its cook could love. The two poached eggs were also crying for salt.

We went with the more traditional version, but I wish we’d opted for the other: “buttery mushroom and onion.” I mainly just enjoyed the two thick slices of slightly-sweet toasted challah that came with it.

nuuNoosh is a fabulous reuse of a former electronics repair shop that has also been a tattoo parlor and escape room. Now, it’s a place where you linger and have discussions with Borokhim about her ingredients.

Borokhim decorated the restaurant’s exterior with colorful metal flowers. Inside, she plays jazz and old movie soundtracks on a portable suitcase record player.

And if the spices in Borokhim’s food aren’t bold enough, the restaurant’s atmosphere is certainly spirited. When my friend and I walked in one particularly chilly April day, Borokhim told us to sit wherever we wanted.

The radical, but necessary, nine-month reconstruction of Monroe Street is going to be hard on some small businesses, but so far things have been OK for Burgrito’s.

You could say it’s served as a forced soft opening.

Burgrito’s opened March 16, four days after construction began, selling burgers, burritos and its namesake combination of the two, among other menu items.

Business is strong, largely due to the EatStreet crowd, which has taken to the fast-casual restaurant to the point where one rainy Tuesday, Burgrito’s had far more delivery drivers coming in and out during the noon hour than it did regular customers (5:2).

Burgrito’s was started in 2015 by brothers Darin and Lawrence Laby, who admit they didn’t come up with the burger-burrito mash-up. Madison is Burgrito’s fifth location and the only one outside New York. There’s a Burgrito’s in Brooklyn and three on Long Island.

I was slightly leery of the so-called burgrito ($9.99), not really interested in having a burger rolled in a tortilla, especially after I learned there were fries in the mix. But the hamburger-burrito was pretty great, especially with chipotle sauce and its other components: bacon, lettuce, onion, cheese and tomato.

My friend avoids burgers because of buns, so she liked the burgrito concept, and noted that the tortilla was more firm than on the average burrito. She also appreciated the mix of textures the fries and the crisp bacon provided. “Usually in a burrito everything is kind of mushy,” she said.

A patty with cheese was broken in half so it could be rolled in the tortilla and positioned to allow for beef in every bite. The meat tasted fresh and flavorful. I only wished the medium-thick fries had been crispy. Still, that didn’t matter as much since they were tucked inside.

My other complaint was that the burrito came partly unrolled a few bites in. The same thing happened on my second visit with my falafel burrito ($8.49). Later, I noticed another customer who left part of the foil wrapper on as he ate. So that’s probably a good way to keep the burritos intact.

Otherwise, the fried chickpea balls were delicious, and the burrito came with sour cream on the side, which was a pleasant bonus. My only gripe was that the falafel could have been warmer.

Temperature was also an issue with a chicken bowl ($8.49), where the chicken chunks, beans and rice were warm. But it would have tasted better if the shredded cheese on top was melted better, and if the chilled lettuce wasn’t so cold compared to the warm ingredients.

A Caesar salad ($6.99) was notable for the generous amount of shaved Parmesan. Meanwhile, a side order of guacamole ($3.49), featuring tomato, came in two small plastic containers and tasted fresh and homemade.

I was surprised to learn from Matt Paciulli, the manager who came from New York to run the restaurant, and also does a lot of the cooking, that Burgrito’s makes its own chips ($2.49) and salsa ($1.49).

The salsa was smooth, made with freshly-pureed tomatoes, and packed more heat than I expected. The chips were freshly fried, light and not greasy.

Finally, it’s worth going for the small apple cinnamon dessert burrito ($3.99). Its crust was deep-fried and crisp, and coated with cinnamon and sugar, but the filling was vaguely reminiscent of a hot McDonald’s pie.

What makes me sad about Burgrito’s is that while the simple, no-frills atmosphere is fine for what it is, the love and care the owners of Double S BBQ put into their former space had to be stripped away. I get why the new owners needed to make the place over, but there is a resulting charm deficit.

The music on both of my visits, at least, added a fun feel, an 80s soundtrack of my youth: Think the Jam, UB40, the Knack, Elvis Costello, General Public and Echo and the Bunnymen. Paciulli said the restaurant uses a satellite radio station and agrees it provides a cool vibe.

I wondered why the Laby brothers chose Madison for their first location outside New York and found out it’s because Darin Laby’s wife went to UW.

The Labys get Madison and have tailored their menu to fit in. “We do about four times as many vegetarian items as we do in New York, which is a significant change for us,” Paciulli said. But gluten-free options haven’t been on their radar, he said.

As for the Monroe Street construction, it hasn’t been a problem, Paciulli said. In fact, the new restaurant has often found itself overwhelmed with business.

“We’re still training people, but there are times where it’s so busy that we can only do online orders, actually,” he said.

Northsiders were able to get sushi at QQ Asian Buffet on Sherman Avenue before it closed, but it wasn’t the same as having a dedicated Japanese restaurant.

A recent meal at Bistro Honda, which opened Feb. 8 in Northside Town Center, was remarkable in a number of ways, not least of which was the decadent fried cheesecake with mochi at the end.

The restaurant can be difficult to find, located on the edge of the strip mall, hidden around the corner from Benvenuto’s Italian Grill and the majority of the other businesses.

Bistro Honda actually makes it so that you don’t even need to order dessert. Customers are greeted by a huge bin of free candy stationed at the entrance that includes generous boxes of the Pocky matcha tea biscuit sticks, a sweet Japanese snack food, that my daughter loves.

The candy is the first clue that Bisto Honda is a casual place. The next clue is the paper placemats with the menu on them. It’s a fun menu that includes a handful of appetizers, lots of ramen, sushi rolls, main dishes, a poké bowl and even a poké burrito roll. (Poké is the raw fish salad popularized in Hawaii.)

The restaurant is owned by Akira Ishikawa, the owner of Karaoke Kid and Ramen Kid, near the UW-Madison campus, and the founder of the longstanding, but now-closed Ginza of Tokyo restaurant on Odana Road.

Ishikawa, 72, moved to Chicago from Japan in 1968 and then to Madison in 1978. He opened Ginza in 1979 and sold it 10 years later.

In 1993, he opened Karaoke Kid. Ramen Kid came in January 2016.

Ishikawa said he’d “already experienced the West Side” and that the Downtown is too expensive. He said he got a good lease deal on the former North Side coffee shop space. Ishikawa, who does some of the cooking at Bistro Honda, helped the one overtaxed server deliver food to the tables during my visit.

He accidentally brought us takoyaki ($5.75), or octopus balls, that belonged to another table. They were so attractive I wondered what they were. But I didn’t have to wait long because we also had an order coming.

The five balls were lightly fried and pillowy with slightly chewy octopus in the middle. They were topped with bonito flakes and two mayo-based sauces, and served in a narrow ceramic bowl. They were not only the highlight of my meal, but a highlight of all the meals I’ve had out this year. Ishikawa serves the same takoyaki at Ramen Kid.

Another high point was the garlic shrimp yaki-udon ($13.75) with a light, delicious garlic sauce on the noodles and six huge shrimp. Most of the vegetables — red and green bell peppers and asparagus —were perfectly al dente.

A seaweed salad ($5.75) was the most unusual one I’ve ever had, with the seaweed served on top of a big plate of gourmet greens with cherry tomatoes, strawberries and yellow pickled daikon radish. Only the seaweed was dressed, which made parts of the salad untouched by the seaweed less appealing.

I never visit a Japanese restaurant without ordering a spicy tuna roll ($7.75). And, like the seaweed salad, Bistro Honda’s was not at all what I was expecting. Instead of raw tuna being mixed with mayo and Sriracha, a chunk of bright pink tuna showed up inside the roll with a bit of cucumber tucked beside it.

Large slices of mildly spicy jalapeño sat on top of each of the eight pieces with a drizzle of chili-mayo. I was in the mood for a traditional spicy tuna roll, but it was nice to be surprised. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t order it again, though.

The wasabi was also different here, served in a more liquidy paste that was sharper than most.

As if there aren’t enough unusual things about Bistro Honda — women need to check out the high-tech toilet with a bidet in the ladies’ room. Ishikawa said he initially put one in the men’s room, but it got broken three times. Bidets are very popular in Japan, he said. “Almost every house and public toilets have it.”

In terms of the strange name Bistro Honda, Ishikawa said his father was a wholesaler of Honda motors in Japan in the 1950s. “Honda was making small engines to install to rich people’s bicycles.”

It’s also the last name of his friend in Houston who has a Japanese karaoke restaurant called Genji, he said.

What’s more, it’s a nod to a restaurant in Los Angeles called Honda Ya Izakaya, owned by another friend. All three of them worked together at a Benihana in Chicago in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he said.

Now back to that deep-fried cheesecake ($5.85): It may sound over-the-top, but it enhanced what can seem like an ordinary dessert. An excellent green tea mochi ice cream ball was a welcome bonus.

It’s the only dessert offered, so if it sounds like too much, there’s always the Pocky sticks and other free goodies in the bin on the way out.

Chen’s Dumpling House is joining a group of restaurants that serve Chinese food in a one block radius on State Street: Fugu Asian Fusion, Asian Kitchen, Soga Shabu Shabu and Koi Sushi, which serves Chinese as well as Japanese food.

But there seem to be enough Chinese students at UW-Madison and enough other lovers of Chinese food to support all of these places.

And when you visit Chen’s Dumpling House, which opened Feb. 18, it feels natural to eat a plate of dumplings as a meal. Yet, you don’t have to. The menu includes six types of dumplings, but also a couple noodle dishes, and a few other items.

I was looking for a wider variety of dumplings with a more interesting selection of fillings. A seafood dumpling would have been nice. But Amanda Chen, who owns the restaurant with husband James Jiang, said the current menu is just the start.

We had the best luck with the bok choy and pork dumplings (10 pieces for $7.95), even though my friend and I expected a more even ratio of the title ingredients. The bok choy wasn’t too noticeable, and, when we dissected the dumpling, we found just specks of vegetable. It was basically just an accent, cut as small as a scallion might be. Still, the noodle wrapper was homemade and the hand-pinched dumplings had a rough-hewn, authentic look.

That presentation was in contrast to the restaurant’s best-selling steamed pork dumplings called xiaolongbao (6 sizable pieces for $6.95), where the wrapper was not in the usual potsticker-style, but was instead pillowy dough gathered at the top like a fancy package.

These dumplings — which take their name from the bamboo baskets they’re steamed in — weren’t as enjoyable because of the amount of wrap, but were still worth ordering.

Both sets of dumplings were served with a chili oil so hot that a little went a long way. I preferred it mixed with the Zhenjiang vinegar on the table. (The vinegar is named for a city between Shanghai and Nanjing.)

Bok choy was much more prevalent in the dish called “noodles with scrambled egg & tomato” ($8.95), even though its presence was unannounced. The noodles were obviously homemade, but we never got used to what tasted like ketchup in the watery sauce. It was almost like Chinese spaghetti, if spaghetti was super bland and held bits of scrambled egg and large slices of tomato. It was a big portion — dare I say too big a portion.

Jiang confirmed there was ketchup in the sauce, but said it can be left out at the customer’s request.

A better choice, and an extremely good value, were the well-seasoned scallion pancakes ($2.95): four thick, greasy flour-based cakes stuffed with green onions. These were superior to other more plain versions I’ve had.

For dessert, we tried the steamed creamy custard bun ($2.95), four, lightly sweetened, puffy little balls with yellow custard made from egg at their center. Neither one of us wanted more than one bite, leading my friend to say they’re probably an acquired taste.

The five tables on the cramped ground floor were filled the Thursday night we visited, but there’s also a more spacious room on the second floor with eight extra tables.

Upstairs, five stools at a counter in front of big windows present a bird’s-eye view of mid-State Street. But there’s better people watching on the walls, where a framed mural depicts a restaurant scene from kitchen to table, and a cartoonish painting nearby portrays a dad happily slurping noodles without offering any to his son. Jiang said he had the artwork shipped from China.

Jiang, who used to run three World Buffet locations in the area, bought the building that housed the former Osaka House sushi restaurant and made many improvements.

He didn’t want to talk about World Buffet, but said he’s still managing the one in the old Pedro’s West location on D’Onofrio Drive, and will for the next year or two until the new owners are comfortable. He also owns the building.

Jiang, who grew up in Southern China, said he hasn’t done any advertising for Chen’s Dumpling House. “We just open the door,” he said, noting that he sees many of the same customers every day.

He wanted to be on State Street because it’s convenient for the large number of Chinese students at UW-Madison.

“What I’m doing is real Chinese food,” he said. “And State Street is the best spot. In some other locations maybe people don’t know about the real Chinese food.”

Jiang said while he and his staff make their own dough and cook the dumplings fresh, other Chinese restaurants make their dumplings in advance or buy them already made.

My friend often drives by the old Branch Street Retreat in Middleton and likes to report the comings and goings to me: Cold Fusion, I Love Tacos, Cuco’s and finally Q-Cos.

Now that Adrienne Hulburt-Stroud has opened Common Ground, a restaurant, coffee shop, bar and community space, things are looking up. And my friend says the parking lot is always packed.

The lot was crowded the night that same friend and I stopped in with most of the people likely upstairs in the meeting and gathering areas, because the restaurant was rather sedate.

The menu features a good selection of salad, sandwich and burger choices, but what immediately intrigued me was the five types of deviled eggs, $6 for four (halves).

I’m sure the kitchen staff was happy to get my mix-and-match order of green eggs & ham, breakfast egg, buffalo ranch and goat cheese & curry deviled eggs. But the helpful employee — customers order at the counter — assured me it was no problem.

And knowing what I know now, I should’ve just ordered four of the breakfast tea-dyed eggs with cheddar and bacon, where the egg white took on a pinkish hue. The mix of ingredients worked wonderfully. The buffalo flavor in the ranch one came on too strong and the goat cheese/curry flavor in that egg wasn’t defined enough. The most redeeming thing about the green eggs & ham egg was its name.

A kale Caesar salad, meanwhile, was a perfectly-dressed mix of romaine and kale with red onion, grated Parmesan and croutons.

“How hard is it to make a good salad?” asked my companion, who has never eaten a green vegetable. It’s actually a fair point, because it isn’t difficult. Still, it’s a treat to get a really satisfying bowl of greens like this with an excellent homemade Caesar dressing. Plus, it was a meal-sized portion for $6.

Common Ground’s chef and kitchen manager, Cory Topel, formerly of Ale Asylum, said all the dressings are homemade.

Another fine choice was the caprese grilled cheese ($8), because Parmesan is put on the grill and cooked into the bread. I’d never seen that before and it added an interesting contrast to the mild flavor of the fresh mozzarella inside. Pesto and tomato completed the sandwich, with a small cup of balsamic vinaigrette on the side for dipping.

It’s easy to see why Hulburt-Stroud calls the caprese Common Ground’s most popular sandwich.

My friend enjoyed his Southwest burger ($11) with grass-fed beef from Conscious Carnivore on University Avenue and avocado. Pico de gallo, chipotle-lime aioli and taco seasoning gave it the perfect hint of spice.

“The more I eat the burger the more I like it,” my friend said. I agreed to such a degree that I ate half of it.

When we ordered, we were asked, “pink or no pink?” And our no-pink burger was cooked just right, sort of char-grilled. The bun was also nicely browned.

Both the sandwich and burger came with a choice of french fries or sweet potato fries. My friend had been interested in the garlic Parmesan fries listed elsewhere on the menu and I asked if he could get those as a side, but I mistakenly just asked for Parmesan fries.

The counter person was glad to do it, but what came out were medium-thick, undercooked fries that the Parmesan couldn’t really improve. My sweet potato fries, also medium thick, were crisp and delicious.

Another highlight was a malted milk chocolate bar from Sjolinds Chocolate House in Mount Horeb, sold by the register for $5. Baked goods from Monona Bakery and Eatery were also available.

The enormous dining room has a nice feel, especially the more intimate front area where a row of upholstered booths make it feel like grandma’s house.

The bar and counter are prominent features of the room, and there were 10 local beers on tap the night we were in.

On the other side, a large checkerboard stage takes up a good portion of the space, which is endearingly filled with mismatched tables. A series of bulletin boards with flyers add to the community feel.

Hulburt-Stroud opened Common Ground Jan. 22 and will have a grand opening on April 7 with live music and activities all day. The restaurant will also be unveiling its spring menu.

Outside groups host their own events and Common Ground sponsors others. Family yoga, book clubs and art shows have all seen good turnouts. Open mics are held on evenly-numbered Wednesdays and odd-numbered Mondays.

“The biggest draw for people is just feeling welcome,” Hulburt-Stroud said.

The slogan on Lake Edge Seafood Co.’s carry-out menu — “if it swims we probably have it” — hints at the fun John Kitto has infused into his combination seafood store and restaurant on Madison’s East Side.

Kitto, 64, the longtime owner of Thrift Painting, sold that business after 44 years.

He opened the seafood store in late December at Monona Drive and Buckeye Road with his son, Rob. The restaurant opened a month later.

Kitto greets new customers warmly, and, if you let him — and why wouldn’t you? — he’ll go into great detail about the restaurant’s menu.

My companion appreciated Kitto’s honesty when he told us many customers don’t care for the po’ boy or the lobster roll because of the buns. He said he’s looking to find a suitable replacement.

I’d heard good things about two appetizers, the seafood cakes ($12.95) and calamari ($11.95), and both were worth ordering.

The seafood cakes are made mostly with crab, but also have salmon, yellowfin tuna, grouper, mahi mahi, and swordfish, Kitto said. They had a mild seafood flavor and a perfect sear. The Cajun remoulade zigzagged across the top provided kick. As for the squid, the small rings were tender and the breading tasty. The homemade cocktail sauce, however, was a tad sweet.

We skipped the po’ boy and lobster roll after Rob, the son, showed us the buns that other customers had criticized. Kitto later told me they’ve already tried five different buns.

I got an update from Kitto on Tuesday when they tried a sixth. He said it was a winner and had what he was looking for: a crunchy exterior and soft middle.

During our visit, though, we had the codwich ($12.95), which comes on a soft pretzel roll. It was a bit skimpy on the deep-fried cod, but the roll and other elements — cheese, lettuce, pickles, tomato — tasted great together.

The grouper dinner ($19.80) was fine, but maybe our chosen preparation, which was grilled, isn’t the best way to eat grouper. It tasted plain without sauce or much seasoning, and the tartar sauce in tall bottles on the tables could have used more onion and pickle, something to perk it up.

The fish served in dinners can be blackened or deep-fried as well as grilled and comes with a choice of two sides. Sandwiches and fish tacos come with one side.

A nice feature of Lake Edge is that customers can order a cup of one of the restaurant’s three soups as a side. The clam chowder was outstanding, not too thick and packed with soft clams. And the cup was nearly as big as a bowl.

Onion rings were another good choice: large, golden and crisp. They don’t get much better.

The only disappointing side was the potato salad, which had an odd taste my friend and I couldn’t pinpoint.

While mahi mahi, swordfish, halibut and tuna are available at the fish counter, I wondered why none of them were on the restaurant’s menu, which includes oysters, scallops, shrimp, cod, walleye, salmon and perch.

When I asked Kitto about that, he said that soon customers will be able to buy any seafood from the case and have it prepared.

Kitto has put his painting background to good use in turning a former furniture consignment shop into a charming store and restaurant where the seafood theme is tastefully conveyed.

He called it a “team effort,” but added that his former career taught him about symmetry, balance and what colors go together.

Mirrored portholes along the main wall and a mermaid and sea creature on the women’s and men’s room doors enhance the space.

The menu boards are attractive and easy to read. The kids’ menu is done in those familiar primary-color magnetic letters, where one of the choices is “mac + you know.”

In the store part of the business, the fish and seafood are beautifully displayed, but Lake Edge’s offerings are priced higher than most grocery store seafood, more in line with the Seafood Center on Whitney Way.

Considering the humble neighborhood surrounding the business, Kitto said he’s made sure to price all the meals at $19.99 or less, and he’s promoting that guarantee with big signs at the counter where customers order. He’s also lowered the prices for some items on his weekend brunch.

Kitto’s done a lot to make the Lake Edge experience a good one. He even brought out a piece of tiramisu at the end of our meal. When I told him it was unnecessary and asked why he was doing it, he said he wants “people to love us.”

He had no idea I was writing a critique for the State Journal, but said I could “retaliate” by writing a good review, a reference to the mixed online customer reviews the restaurant’s been getting.

So consider this my “retaliation.” Lake Edge Seafood is still getting its feet wet, but shows lots of promise — and patience when it comes to sandwich rolls.

Athens Grill is the most unlikely of restaurants, transitioning from an outstanding gyro shop inside a Shell station, to a spacious, beautiful freestanding restaurant next to a Kwik Trip Express in the same location.

It serves the same delicious gyros, but the menu has been expanded in exciting ways, with many excellent sandwich choices, burgers, salads and an incredible soup.

Whether the restaurant is in Westport, Waunakee or Madison is an open question: Google says Westport. The restaurant’s website says Waunakee. And the napkin holders on the tables say Madison.

Owner Andy Ziegler, 34, said the restaurant is located in the town of Westport, but has a Waunakee address.

“As far as the napkin holders go,” he said, “we brand ourselves in Madison because we do plenty of events in Madison and want to be known throughout the Madison area.”

Ziegler opened the nearly 7,000-square-foot restaurant in mid-December after 13 months of construction. (A basement storage and production area accounts for almost half the square footage.) It’s on Highway M near Highway 113, north of Lake Mendota.

Athens Grill is an expansion of Athens Gyros, which used to be part of the Trader Gus Shell, with a much more limited menu. When the Kwik Trip was under construction, the gyro restaurant operated out of a box truck on the property. That truck will be at events this summer, Ziegler said.

The original gyro shop and gas station was started in 2006 by Gus Kyriakopoulos, a longtime manager at the Parthenon restaurant on State Street. Ziegler bought Gus out two years ago, just before the Shell station closed. Gus’ original partner is now a silent partner.

The gyros ($7) are Gus’ original recipe and still feature a generous amount of tender meat that’s less zesty than the lamb-beef mix at the Parthenon. It comes on a grilled pita with tomato slices, onion and fantastic tzatziki sauce.

Vegetarians will be delighted with the eggplant pita ($7), with slices of grilled eggplant and “giardiniera-hummus,” where the Italian relish isn’t too assertive. The hummus was a key addition, joining charred red onions, greens, feta, yogurt-tahini and roasted pine nuts.

The gyro burger ($7) is another great idea, with high-quality Knoche’s beef, an herbed feta spread, gyro meat, raw onions, pickles and tzatziki. Its excellent sesame seed bun is baked in-house. The mild, thinly-sliced house-made pickles are a cross between dill and bread-and-butter pickles, and added a lot. Extra pickles pinned to the top of the bun are a nice touch.

Customers can add fries and a fountain drink to any gyro or burger for $2. The fries are similar to Parthenon’s — medium thick, crisp and delicious.

The triangles of spanakopita ($4), or spinach-feta pie, were fine, but the phyllo wasn’t as flaky as it could’ve been.

A highlight of the meal was the Mediterranean grain salad ($7), a gourmet mix of bulgur, roasted squash, kale, garbanzo beans, pumpkin seeds and pickled raisins in a red-wine vinaigrette.

“I’m impressed with this, even though I’m not a fruit-in-salad kind of guy,” said my companion, adding that the squash also contributed to the sweetness.

He was enamored with the tzatziki sauce from the spanakopita and put what was left over on the salad, while I found the salad to be perfectly dressed as it was.

The chicken lemon soup ($6) is as remarkable as the salad. There’s no cup option, which is OK because you’re going to want the whole bowl. There was plenty of rotisserie chicken, often in large chunks, as well as rice, yogurt, grilled lemon and dill. It was reasonably thick and positively masterful.

For dessert, the baklava ($3), in small twin slices, shouldn’t be overlooked. The phyllo pastry here was crispier than in the spanakopita, and it had the requisite walnuts and honey.

The spacious, rectangular room is inviting, with yellow walls and a mix of regular and tall pale wood tables, plus an area in back with comfortable leather chairs. The room extends into a smaller room that can be used for private events or overflow seating. The counter-service restaurant also has a drive-thru and a beautifully-designed website.

Reasonable prices and healthy menu items that change with the season will ensure that customers return often.

“It’s really important to me to bring that high quality of food to the everyman,” said Ziegler, whose background is in fine dining.

He helped Tim Dahl open the former Nostrano restaurant on the Capitol Square, and Dahl, in turn, worked as a consultant on Athens Grill.

Ziegler started his restaurant career with L’Etoile and Cafe Soleil, was a sushi chef at Muramoto for three years, and worked for a short time at Lombardino’s and the Old Fashioned. He studied international relations and political science at Edgewood College and got to spend time in kitchens in Italy and France, while he lived in Europe.

In other words, it’s easy to see why Athens Grill has taken off and has sold more than 11,000 gyros since it opened three months ago.

Where Athens Gyros was a cult classic, Athens Grill is an instant classic.

The restaurant location that was most famously the Yellow Jersey bike shop for almost four decades has gone through many concepts in the past few years. But now as the Latin-themed Palmas Bar & Lounge, it’s got a fighting chance.

Iris Amaya is from Honduras, her husband, Eliud Villalva, is from Mexico, and their menu incorporates foods from both of their home countries. The menu also includes cuisine from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Wisconsin is represented by cheese curds.

The couple is partnered with Kassia Peralta and Rafael Gonzalez, another married couple, who are from the Dominican Republic. All four do the cooking and prep.

The place was sadly empty when I visited on Valentine’s Day, a fact made more depressing because of the effort and expense Amaya went through to decorate the restaurant. She’d made a lovely centerpiece for each table and put hearts up over all the booths.

But as soon as the food starting coming out, we got beyond that initial heartbreak. My favorite item was a Venezuelan barbecue beef arepa ($4.99), its thick maize pocket greasy to the touch, but overstuffed with delicious, shredded barbacoa with a subtle sauce.

It can also be ordered with cheese or ground beef, and came with a wonderful mayo-based sauce that the menu describes as pink, but actually had more of an orange color.

Palmas’ empanada ($3) was also a winner and remarkably non-greasy. There are many filling choices, and the vegetarian one was thick with well-seasoned eggplant and red and green peppers. It came with the same sauce.

The baleadas ($3), a traditional Honduran specialty, was a nice discovery, its thick flour tortilla folded over blended and fried red beans, cheese and eggs. It would be a great breakfast.

A fish taco ($2.75), meanwhile, suffered from salty, strong-tasting tilapia, but I appreciated the grilled, double corn tortilla filled with pico de gallo.

The only real mistake we made in ordering was with the chop suey, called shop sui ($8.99) here, with shredded chicken and lots of vegetables including thin, limp pieces of Mexican chayote squash that was flavorless. The noodles didn’t have much taste, either.

The meal came with garlic bread made with chewy grilled homemade bolillo and had no butter, which was sorely needed.

What I did appreciate was the unexpected basket of thin, warm, homemade chips Amaya, who waited on us, brought out with a spicy green salsa.

Villalva said that before opening the restaurant, he and Gonzalez had a difficult job loading boxes onto pallets for Sysco, the food distribution giant.

“We are just trying to do something for ourselves and leave a legacy, probably for our kids,” Villalva said in describing the reason he and his wife wanted to take over the restaurant.

There are a lot of Mexican restaurants in Madison, but the partners had the idea to combine foods from each of their backgrounds, he said.

“This way people can try something from different countries in one place, put together,” Villalva said. “So people can know better about different countries, not just one.”

Alberto Santos, an original Palmas owner, and partner in Zandru’s Spanish tapas restaurant in the same spot before that, turned over the business earlier this year to the current team.

Abdallah Lababidi, who owned Palmyra Mediterranean Grill in the same space for two years before Zandru’s, and was also involved in the tapas restaurant, still has a small share of the business, but is a silent partner, Villalva said.

I was glad to learn from Amaya that the partners had other Valentine’s Day customers later that night. She also mentioned that the restaurant offers DJs and dancing Friday and Saturday nights until late.

Palmas, even though its inviting atmosphere feels upscale, keeps its prices low and geared toward students.

The new restaurant’s formula is a sound one, and the owners know what they are doing in the kitchen. With any luck, Palmas will be the first restaurant in the former bike shop to wear the yellow jersey.

Online Soga Shabu Shabu identifies itself as Soga Chinese Food. That’s because the “shabu shabu,” or hot pot part of the restaurant, is just a fraction of what it does.

Soga first opened in 2012 at 508 State St., where Nadia’s restaurant used to be. Ting Zhou bought the second-floor restaurant three years ago from the original owners, closed it last summer, and moved it across the street.

The larger, more visible location, which opened in October after extensive remodeling, housed the casual pizza and pasta restaurant Mia Za’s for 10 years.

Initially, Soga’s specialty was traditional Japanese hot pot, similar to fondue in that diners cook their own thinly-sliced meat and vegetables in a pot of simmering broth.

Now, the regular Chinese-food menu featuring Sichuan and Hunan-style food takes center stage, with a menu — and two different glossy take-out menus — listing about 160 items. On a recent weeknight, I found a lot to like, and one thing to avoid.

The squash cake appetizer ($6.99) was a great discovery, with four soft discs of sweet squash, fried and studded with sesame seeds. They were the diameter of a small doughnut and not overly greasy. I initially tried to order the intriguing-sounding lotus root with ginger sauce, but the kitchen was out.

My server talked me out of the Sichuan mung bean noodle and into the steamed white meat chicken with chili sauce ($8.99), from which I learned that steaming chicken is a terrible idea. Vegetables yes, chicken, no. It gave the meat an off-putting smell and taste that the oily chili sauce couldn’t remedy. The large slices of chicken still had some bone and skin intact.

The seafood mei fun ($7.95) got the meal back on track with mild, dry vermicelli noodles that still managed to be well seasoned. They were surrounded by a generous amount of small shrimp, squid, mock crab, tender white fish, vegetables and egg. Server Su Lee later identified the fish as snow fish. A little research revealed that it is also known as sablefish or black cod.

Another solid dish was beef and scallops ($10.50) under “chef’s specialty.” The meat was of good quality, but the bay scallops didn’t hold much appeal. The plate also had lots of broccoli and a great selection of other bright vegetables in a dark broth.

I visited on a Monday night when there were plenty of other customers, but the restaurant wasn’t overly busy. The food came out within about 10 minutes.

The space is enormous, with flashy, comfortable red booths and colorful food photographs covering a pillar in the middle of the room. Fortunately, a TV in front of it was turned off.

Photos over the booths, meanwhile, offer night and day scenes of the Capitol and one of Lambeau Field. Turns out, Zhou, the owner, is a big Packers fan, said Su Lee, who translated for Zhou, who speaks little English.

Lee said Zhou, 50, is from the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou, the capital of China’s Fujian province. He was living in New York when he first came to Madison in 2004 after seeing an ad for a job in a Madison restaurant. It was a Chinese place on Park Street, and he only worked there a short time.

The restaurant later closed, and Zhou can’t remember its name since he’s worked in so many restaurants since, Lee said.

He liked Madison a lot and when he learned Soga was for sale in 2014, he bought it and moved back again from New York with his wife and children.

One important thing to know about Soga is that it has a sizable, well-stocked dessert bar in an equally large room in back. I only noticed it as I walked by it to get to the washroom.

I asked the hostess about it, but couldn’t understand who it was for because of a language barrier. She was trying to say it was free.

Customers don’t have to order the all-you-can eat, $24-per-person shabu shabu to try the dessert bar. It’s open to anyone who buys lunch or dinner, Lee said.

They don’t tell you, so I guess you just have to be in the know. I was glad to learn about it, because having orange slices, honeydew melon and a square of cherry Jell-O was the perfect cap to a mostly rewarding meal.

Kudos to a restaurant founded in Illinois for frying cheese curds as good as Wisconsin’s best.

The Chicken Run, which opened Dec. 19 in Middleton, is a spin-off of Candlelight Inn, a restaurant in Sterling, Illinois, which has been in business for 50 years and is famous for its — yep — chicken.

The chicken is excellent, too. Everything Chicken Run does, it does well. But it caters to a limited local demographic: People who don’t feel the need to eat healthfully, or don’t mind occasional diet damage. Even one meal here will make you concerned for your cholesterol levels.

That’s because all four items on the menu are deep fried: Chicken Run’s signature Chicken George, hand-cut french fries, cheese curds and Oreos.

The Chicken George is simply chicken breast tenders of various shapes and sizes, hand-battered and fried super crispy. Seven came in our half order ($7.99), if you count the two that were stuck together. Fries and one of Chicken Run’s four sauces were included.

It’s easy to see why the sweet, tangy, light-colored Jan’s sauce has its admirers at the Candleight Inn. Equally impressive was the Chicken Run sauce (extra sauces are 49 cents), which had a slight orange hue. Both are mayonnaise-based, but otherwise secret recipes, said the restaurant’s marketing director, Melissa Ryan-Bergstrom.

It would be hard to take issue with the barbecue sauce, which was straightforward and slightly sweet. And my friend enjoyed the thin ranch sauce.

Truth is, all of the food is flavorful and tastes great without sauce. The chicken was moist and juicy and came out hot, but not too hot to eat. The same was true of the cheese curds, which were a departure from most fried curds — light-colored and soft, with a thin, tempura-style batter. They were creamy before they cooled off and, once room temperature, tasted saltier.

The white cheddar curds come from Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery in the Northwestern Wisconsin town of Ellsworth, Ryan-Bergstrom said.

The fries were different from standard fries. The thin, flat, shoestring potatoes were fried extra dark and seasoned with salt and pepper. They were greasy in a good way.

The young people staffing the kitchen the night we visited put all our food — the chicken, fries and curds — in one basket lined with red-and-white checkered paper. The big, fried feast was almost intimidating.

For dessert, the three fried Oreos ($2.59 — or 99 cents apiece) were kind of roly-poly with padding between the cookie and the shell, almost like a light cake or doughnut hole. The cookie softened to the point where it wasn’t recognizable as an Oreo. They were dusted with powdered sugar.

Beverages — in cans and bottles — are 99 cents.

Chicken Run is mostly a take-out and delivery operation, with its drive-thru getting good use. For those wanting to eat on the spot, there are three tables in the small, well-lit shop, and some chicken art to perk the place up. The building was formerly home to Crandall’s Carryout & Catering.

The Middleton restaurant is the first to be named Chicken Run. The other three restaurants, started by Bob Prescott, are Candlelight Inns. Besides the Sterling restaurant, there’s another in Illinois, and one in Iowa.

The three sit-down Candlelight Inn restaurants now serve about 6,000 pounds of Chicken George a week, according to the backside of the Chicken Run menu card.

Bob Prescott’s son, Matt, now owns the Candlelight restaurants, while Matt and his brother, Bobby, own the Chicken Run. The elder Prescott is still making daily deliveries for the Sterling, Illinois, business he opened in 1967, Ryan-Bergstrom said.

Jan’s sauce is named after Prescott’s late wife, who ran the restaurants with him.

The Middleton location is the first Wisconsin venture for the Prescotts, and if everything goes well it could expand, Ryan-Bergstrom said.

If Chicken Run can make it in the health-conscious Madison area, it can make it anywhere.

There are many reasons to welcome Blue Agave, the Mexican restaurant that opened just before Christmas Downtown on Butler Street, in the former Bayou.

One is the chic lounge upstairs in an area that exists on what is essentially a balcony over the ground-level dining room. With gorgeous white leather couches and furniture, it would be a great place to have margaritas on a Friday or Saturday night when it’s in use.

Jose Mata, the restaurant’s founder and general manager, said there’s dancing downstairs after dinner on weekend nights, and that the loft area upstairs may extend its hours eventually if there’s demand.

A second draw is Blue Agave’s incredible guacamole ($8), prepared tableside by the restaurant’s “guacamoliere,” who wheels over a cart, slices open two ripe avocados and mixes the other ingredients in a large stone molcajete.

We ordered the rostizado version with roasted poblano peppers, tomato, corn and cilantro. I got a little nervous seeing how much salt, garlic powder, onion and lime juice was going in, but I needn’t have worried. It came out masterfully. I just wished my dining partner hadn’t vetoed the jalapeños.

The guacamole takes its name, rostizado, from the roasted poblanos, which were chopped so fine it was hard to see or taste them. Still, they subtly enhanced it.

Mata said he’s starting to cut the peppers bigger and is training his staff to do the same.

The Mexican street corn ($5.50) was also excellent, but went overboard on the mayo, which made it extremely rich. The amount of each of the other ingredients — including chili powder, garlic, queso fresco and lime — was just right.

Another reason to visit Blue Agave is for the chiles rellenos ($12), which come two in an order. With the rice and beans, there was a huge amount of food. What really made the dish stand out was the dark, smoky sauce (with chipotle and guajillo chili peppers) on top of each poblano, plus a dab of guacamole. The chiles rellenos also benefited from plenty of cheese, a tasty breading, and small chunks of marinated pork throughout.

Sandra Alamilla Lopez, who owns the business with Carmen Munoz, said her mother, Beatriz Lopez Juarez, who taught her how to cook, makes the sauce.

The beans were liquidy but good with hot sauce, and the Mexican rice, enhanced by corn and carrots, had great flavor.

The tilapia agave ($14.50) had a nice, light touch, its two fish fillets covered with a cilantro sauce that tasted healthy. The only problem was that the shrimp listed on the menu were AWOL. The fish came with a mound of white rice and a variety of lightly-seasoned veggies.

When my friend noted the missing shrimp, our waiter cut the price of the dish in half, which we told him was unnecessary. It was a minor mistake and there was enough tilapia to justify the original price.

Chips and salsa were served immediately after we were seated, and while the salsa was pretty one-dimensional and held no interest, the homemade chips were outstanding, fresh and non-greasy. Blue Agave makes all its own tortillas, Mata said.

The main disappointment was my mojito, served in a pint glass with a tiny sprig of mint. It was on the specials board for $4.50 on this Sunday night, so I guess it was a case of “you get what you pay for.” I should have just ordered a margarita, which Lopez calls a specialty of Mata, her fiancé.

After all, the restaurant is named for the plant from which tequila is distilled.

Mata grew up in Oshkosh, and has lived in Wisconsin his whole life. But his family is from San Jose de la Paz in Jalisco, Mexico, a state famous for its tequila.

He pays tribute to his late father on the menu. Jose Mata Sr. owned a Mexican restaurant in Oshkosh called Durango’s.

Mata explains on the menu that his father always wanted to have a restaurant in Madison, a city he grew to love.

“Every day I come to work, I will come with a smile on my face, and love in my heart, knowing our dream has come true,” Mata writes.

Cafe Zoma on Atwood Avenue is now in its fourth life, recently taken over by two brothers with impressive restaurant backgrounds.

Kristian and Conner Di Persio bought the homey coffee shop in July, and made few physical changes, other than extending the kitchen area toward the front windows, adding a reclaimed wood wall, and installing wooden bench-seating.

They’ve also stepped up the menu considerably with excellent breakfast sandwiches, crepes, soups and panini.

Most importantly, the coffee is brewed stronger than it was under Espresso Royale, the previous owner.

The brothers have kept the Cafe Zoma name, which goes back 17 years and was given to the shop by its founders, Zoe Oakley and Martha Brigham. The women created the name by combining the first two letters of their first names. From 2005 to 2009, Ann Freiwald owned Zoma.

The Di Persios grew up in Antioch, Illinois, halfway between Chicago and Milwaukee, with a father who was a partner in 23 Illinois and Iowa Ruby Tuesday restaurants.

Kristian, 33, worked as a server in one of the restaurants, but Conner, 26, said he was too young then. Kristian’s last job was at Graze, where he was front of house manager and event coordinator. Conner has been the full-time kitchen manager at the Old Fashioned for nearly four years.

Zoma still uses Espresso Royale for its basic drip coffee (small $1.95, medium $2.20, large $2.50), which is available self-serve. There’s always a house blend, which is a dark Italian roast, a decaf and another coffee that changes daily. On my most recent visit, I was pleased with the Peruvian fair-trade roast coffee, accurately described on its tag as “smooth, rich and medium.”

The Di Persios have switched over to JBC Coffee Roasters, formerly Johnson Brothers Coffee, for their espresso and pour-over coffee.

My daughter called her Ruby Red loose leaf tea ($2.75), “sour, but good.” The helpful barista called it the shop’s most popular tea when my daughter was trying to choose, and let her sniff it. “It tastes pretty much like it smells,” he said.

Conner said the chai tea they’ve started making is selling well, too.

When it comes to food, I’m not sure what I like more, Zoma’s distinctive breakfast sandwiches or its savory crepes.

The breakfast sandwiches ($5.50), served all day, are interesting in that they come on a house-made focaccia, which is novel. A bacon, egg and pepper jack combo was strong, even with limp bacon. The cheese added just the right amount of zing.

The panini ($7.50) are served on the same focaccia. The bella was a winning combination of portabello mushrooms, roasted red pepper, provolone and aioli. The caprese, another vegetarian sandwich, had the familiar lineup of tomato, pesto, spinach and mozzarella, and benefited from a balsamic glaze.

Also getting a boost from a drizzle of balsamic vinegar was a crepe ($7.50) with creamy chevre, asparagus, mushrooms and spinach. Even my friend who professes not to like goat cheese was impressed. A chicken crepe ($8.50) was generous in the amount of meat, and benefited from roasted garlic, mozzarella and a hint of pesto. A salad of tomato and spinach came on top.

There are usually two homemade soups ($5.50), and a zucchini and kale soup with shells had a thin, well-seasoned broth with cayenne and cumin, and just enough vegetables. My one complaint is that soup only comes in a bowl, when I’d like the option of a cup.

From the bakery case I enjoyed a slice of savory focaccia ($4) that Kristian kindly heated up for me. It had ham, spinach, onions and a small amount of cheddar baked into the top. It’s a nice option for those just looking for a mid-afternoon snack and not a whole meal.

A peanut butter bar ($2.75) with a soft layer of chocolate on top was the perfect not-too-sweet dessert, but the scones looked tempting, too. Zoma has a sign in the window boasting that everything is baked in-house, and that’s a big selling point.

Zoma’s walls have long served as an art gallery, and that’s remained true under the Di Persios. Right now customers can surround themselves with charming, colorful self-portraits by third-graders at nearby Marquette Elementary School.

Conner said he and his brother may still change the name of the shop.

“It’s something we’re considering just because there’s a bit of a disconnect for us owning a business and not really having our own name on it,” he said. “It’ll be awhile. We’ll have to make enough changes for it to be a thing. But right now it’s staying Zoma.”

Taqueria Gonzalez in Middleton just does the basics, but does them well.

Osmar Gonzalez and his cousin, Luis Gonzalez, and Luis’ wife, Emily Link, took over the former Abarrotes Yuremi, a grocery and taqueria in an Allen Boulevard strip mall, in August 2016. They renamed it, but kept the dual identity of the place and pretty much the same menu.

The owners of Abarrotes Yuremi dropped the taqueria and moved the grocery to Waunakee.

Meanwhile, Osmar Gonzalez brought in cooks he worked with at Laredo’s. And it’s worth noting that Cocina Real, owned by the same family which owns the Laredo’s restaurants, is just down the block in a separate strip mall.

The tacos at Taqueria Gonzalez are excellent, if you stay away from the flavorful but tough steak. A better option is the barbacoa, its shredded beef slow-cooked over an open fire. An al pastor taco had even more flavor, the small pieces of roasted pork marinated with guajillo chiles, achiote, pineapple and onions.

Tacos are traditional, served with chopped onions and cilantro in a double corn tortilla. They’re $2 each or $8.99 for three with rice and refried beans, both worth ordering. The beans were firm, and with the addition of the restaurant’s green or red sauce — served in large squeeze bottles once you ask — they’re even better.

The Mexican rice, with a hint of carrot and corn, that came with my friend’s tamale plate ($8.99) was crisp in parts, something I enjoyed, but he didn’t. My rice had no crispy bits, and I was glad to switch mine for his. The tamales, themselves were fine, but unexceptional.

Most tamales don’t have enough filling to make them worthwhile. That was true of the tamales at Taqueria Gonzalez, too, so I doused them with the salsas, which were nothing special.

The real discovery at Taqueria Gonzalez was the Cubano ($12.25), a special, which co-owner Osmar Gonzalez said is one and a half times as big as the restaurant’s other tortas, which are $8.99. It starts with a milanesa de pollo, or a thin, breaded chicken cutlet, and its kitchen sink approach also layers a hot dog, ham, a fried egg, refried pinto beans, avocado, lettuce, mozzarella cheese, onion, tomato, sour cream and jalapeños.

It’s a whopper, and when it shows up you’ll need two hungry people to help eat it. The sandwich comes on a sturdy, tasty roll and it needs every bit of its heft to hold what’s inside.

I’d heard good things about the sopes, but the kitchen was out of them this night. We went with a quesadilla ($6.50), instead. I’ve been ordering quesadillas with chorizo lately, and Taqueria Gonzalez makes a great one, with plenty of choice chorizo that was just spicy enough to make it interesting.

A side order of guacamole ($3.25) was disappointing because a large amount of onions and tomatoes crowded out the avocado. I appreciated the addition of cilantro, though.

Taqueria Gonzalez has retained the grocery store of Abarrotes Yuremi, but Osmar Gonzalez said he and his partners consider themselves more of a restaurant than a grocery. It’s got a convenience store feel, but a more cheerful look with orange walls and dispensers with colorful drinks like horchata and agua fresca. My agua de tamarindo was delightful in that it wasn’t too sweet.

Has Taqueria Gonzalez reinvented Mexican food? Not in the least. But its owners are super friendly, the space is clean and cheerful, and the food is solid.

Small-plate restaurants are often disappointing or at least unsatisfying. Then there’s Mint Mark, which hits the mark with memorable, creative food and drink, and knowledgeable, steady service in an intimate, charming room.

Chef Sean Pharr’s menu, printed on a narrow, mint-green sheet of paper, lists 12 intriguing dishes, while the drink menu is a thick booklet focused mainly on cocktails. The beer selection is interesting for both bottles and taps.

And that has something to do with the fact that one of the partners in the project is Chad Vogel, who opened the popular Robin Room cocktail bar on East Johnson Street almost two years ago.

Travis Knight, another partner, has bartended at Robin Room, Natt Spil and Stamm House, where he was bar manager. Gwen and Kyle Johnson of Johnson Public House and Kin-Kin Coffee are also partners, taking care of the mornings and early afternoons.

From the roster of gin drinks, I was smitten with the Monkey Gland ($9), with lemon, orange juice, grenadine and absinthe garnished with a delicious plump olive. As good, and also fruity, was La Paloma ($10), with mezcal as well as tequila, grapefruit, lime and salt. The mezcal gave it an unmistakable smokiness.

All of the tables for four were taken at 6:30 on a Tuesday night, so my group ordered drinks and a few plates to share as we sat at a counter in front of the window. The chef’s table, or seats surrounding the kitchen, opened up while we waited, but we held out for a table.

My favorite discoveries were vegetable dishes, starting with the kale ($9), a delightful salad where the chopped kale was perfectly dressed with tonnato, an Italian condiment Pharr makes with aioli and albacore tuna poached with court-bouillon. The salad incorporates grana padano cheese, a poached egg, warm croutons and rings of pickled shallots, which delightfully found their way into another of our dishes.

Another standout was the cauliflower ($10), roasted and then deep fried. It was prepared the opposite of al dente and made me realize that tender, almost mushy, cauliflower can taste great, especially if it incorporates bagna cauda, which means “hot bath” in Italian. It was a rewarding mixture of garlic, anchovies, olive oil, and fresh lemon juice. Crispy grana padano sat on top.

Neither the potatoes, nor the meatballs, should be missed. The roasted, fried and smashed red potatoes ($5) were prepared with garlic oil, sea salt and vinegar, and came with aioli for dipping. The tender meatballs ($10 for four) were enhanced by a mushroom gravy and served over a smattering of homemade sauerkraut and spaetzle.

“These are as good as it gets,” said my red-meat loving friend, a big-portion guy who was initially disappointed that Mint Mark doesn’t offer any large plates or traditional entrées.

The delicata squash ($9) was notable in that it was served in a stack of five rings that had been fried tempura-style and resembled thick onion rings. Interestingly, they came with quark — a dairy product that’s somewhere between sour cream, yogurt and ricotta cheese — and topped with a hot sauce made from Calabrian chiles and small pieces of mint.

The night’s special, an onion tart ($10) made with caramelized Spanish onions and served on a plate with a reduction of red wine and port wine was fine, but I don’t see a need to promote it to the regular menu.

The cured whitefish ($12) was a spread rolled into a ball and topped with black lumpfish caviar and served with thin, silver dollar scallion pancakes that seemed out of place and didn’t add much. This was a dish I could’ve done without. Another was the terrine ($10), a square slice of pâté made from duck and cherries and cut from a loaf. It came with red-wine pickled beets and charred bread rubbed with garlic oil.

A biscuit ($6) with a garlic-honey glaze tasted almost like dessert, but balancing its sweetness was a sour cultured butter on the side. The square biscuit was cut beautifully on a diagonal. It’s these careful little details that set Mint Mark apart.

The actual desserts were extraordinary. The “cookie” ($6) came in an extremely hot cast-iron skillet, which melted a brown-sugar-bourbon ice cream into the gooey, molten cookie. The batter had rye, brown sugar and chocolate chips, with the alcohol tamping down the cookie’s richness. Butterscotch sauce on top helped make it impossible to pry away from my daughter.

The buttery basque cake ($6) was wonderfully crisp on the top and bottom, and moist inside. It was served over a pool of Amarena cherry sauce.

Pharr is an unusually gifted chef who began his career 14 years ago at Harvest on the Capitol Square. He’s worked in a number of well-known Chicago restaurants including as a cook at the now-closed Michelin-starred Tru, executive chef at The Bristol and chef de cuisine at NoMI.

Originally from New London, Pharr moved from Chicago back to Madison to open Mint Mark. It’s amazing how much skill, care and artistry go into each dish.

Mint Mark’s logo, prominently displayed on the front windows, is a clever play on a monetary mint as well as mint leaves. With its green, leafy wallpaper, turquoise paint and unique backbar, the room bears no resemblance to the former Mermaid Cafe.

You’ll want to try lots of dishes, and the cost can add up. But whatever the final bill is, it will have been worth it.

With an outlet of the Madison pizza-and-salad favorite Ian’s so close by, it’s a good thing Village Pizza, which opened in mid-October on the campus section of University Avenue, is doing so much more than pizza. And it’s in that “so much more” category where it shines.

Brothers Arturo Ruiz and Berna Cazares transformed the former Bob’s Copy Shop into Village Pizza and did a commendable job, remodeling the 2,500-square-foot space, and putting together a menu that offers plenty of appetizers, sandwiches and pastas, in addition to pizza.

The real revelation here is something we ordered on a whim once we finished dinner. It’s not on the menu the restaurant has on its website, and is easy to overlook on the paper menu, where it kind of floats above the appetizers and could get lumped in with them.

It’s a dessert called sweetbites ($6.49), little parallelograms, mostly, and some triangles, of fried dough covered with powdered sugar, which taste like small beignets. The enormous box of “bites” came with a container of chocolate dipping sauce.

Both appetizers we ordered were also deep-fried. The young man who took our order at the counter agreed to let us get a half order of cheese curds ($6.99) and a half order of fried mushrooms, since they were the same price.

It turned out to be a great idea because the mushrooms were excellent and different from any others I’ve had. The huge portobellos were sliced in half, thickly breaded, and fried to a crisp. They came with an excellent marinara for dipping.

The curds were also good: small and salty and with just the right amount of crust. The Caesar salad ($6) was also worth ordering. It was well dressed with crisp romaine lettuce, plenty of Parmesan, and small, tasty croutons.

The menu offers nine sandwiches, five pastas, fried chicken and barbecued ribs. I enjoyed the chicken wrap ($6.49) with grilled chicken (there’s also a fried option) inside a fresh herbed tortilla with lettuce, tomato, avocado, bacon and a light amount of ranch sauce.

Turns out the pizza was the weakest link, even though it was loaded with toppings. Our harvest pizza was $17.49 for 14 inches and $18.49 for 18 inches, making me wonder why anyone would get the small one when the large was only $1 more. The vegetarian pizza looked great with plenty of tomatoes, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, green pepper slices, onions, spinach and black olives, and a generous amount of cheese.

Crust options are thin, double dough (with dough on the bottom and the top), deep dish and gluten-free. We went with the regular thin crust, which came out partly charred. That could have been overlooked had the pizza had more flavor, but the tomato sauce was oddly bland.

The menu promised green olives and it came with black ones. Green olives are more distinctive and could’ve perked up the pie. Red pepper flakes helped somewhat.

I’ve never had a Rosati’s Pizza, even though the Chicago-area chain has been in Madison for 18 years. Ruiz compares his pizzas to Rosati’s, since he worked at Rosati’s on Madison’s East Side for about seven years and more recently for two years at the West Side location. He said his pizzas have a different style of dough and different ingredients.

Ruiz, who’s from Mexico City and has been in Madison 17 years, has also cooked for two years at Great Dane Hilldale, managed a McDonald’s location, and spent six months at the Icon on State Street. Ruiz’s brother/partner Cazares worked as a chef at Mason’s Eatery & Pub in Kenosha.

We visited on a quiet New Year’s Day for dinner, and the restaurant seemed to be doing a steady delivery business on a frigid night. The room has a casual, college look to it, with all the visual impact coming from the fun, swirly tomato logo painted on the main wall. Across from it are murals of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum in Rome and canals in Venice.

The main discovery at Village Pizza were those delicious sweetbites. The box held dozens of pieces and was five times more than we needed, so I took the rest with me. No sooner did I get comfortable at home than I began thinking about these delicious bites — and I snacked on them for days.

Lulu’s 13 provides a good option at East Towne Mall for those who want to relax, get waited on and avoid the chaos of the food court. Plus, there are cocktails.

There are many chain restaurants encircling the mall’s parking lot, but Lulu’s is built into the mall, with entrances from the outside and through the food court. It opened Oct. 30 next to Buffalo Wild Wings and the food court.

Lulu’s menu is lengthy and starts with some intriguing breakfast options like wild rice pancakes, Captain Crunch French toast and prime rib Benedict. I was curious to know if anyone ever orders the “Hangover Cure”: an 18-ounce Pabst Blue Ribbon, three pieces of bacon, choice of toast and 2 Alka-Seltzers.

The $7.99 remedy is unique to Madison, but co-owner Greg Creighton, who is based in Minnesota, where he has other restaurants, laughed when I asked if that’s because Madison is such a big drinking town.

“I grew up here, so I’m one of those guys,” said Creighton, who was raised on a small farm outside of Hazel Green, which is south of Platteville, and went to UW-Whitewater.

I have yet to go to Lulu’s for breakfast, but can vouch for the stuffed jalapeño popper burger ($12.49). It didn’t taste much like a jalapeño popper, but was still worthwhile. The burger was topped with a cream cheese-based sauce that had hints of bacon, onions and peppers. It didn’t exactly seem stuffed, but that’s because the same mixture subtly oozed from the center. The meat was fresh-tasting and juicy, and the ingredients added interest. I just wished the jalapeños made themselves obvious.

Burgers come with a host of sides, some an extra $1.50, including a soupy mac and cheese, which my daughter enjoyed.

Triple combos are also prominently touted on the menu. They include a half sandwich, a cup of soup, a small Caesar salad and thin-cut homemade potato chips for $10.99. Our waiter didn’t realize the chips were included until I showed him the menu.

In a follow-up phone conversation, Creighton suggested maybe calling it the “quad combo” because it does come with the chips.

The chips that I talked our waiter into were the weakest part. They were overly salty, and rubbing the salt off with my hands just made my fingers greasy. The day’s Cajun chicken soup was creamy, somewhat cheesy, and not at all spicy. The Caesar salad was well-dressed and added a welcome vegetable component to the meal.

My half Reuben came on dark, soft pumpernickel bread with terrific sauerkraut and the Russian dressing had a bit of sweetness that I liked. My only complaint was that some of the meat was fatty.

As for appetizers, the L13 tots ($10.99) are nine giant tater tots as big as egg rolls, with bacon, sour cream and cheddar cheese inside. They came with a deep dish of seasoned sour cream, which Creighton dubbed a “horsey sauce.” They’re too rich to eat many of, so next time I’d order them as a side with a burger for an extra $1.50.

Calling tacos “street tacos” may make them seem more hip, but these tacos ($12.49) were a mixed bag. They sounded appealing because the choices were brisket, walleye or chicken. I ordered them on a Wednesday, and a different waiter suggested I order the day’s special instead: two tacos for $7.99 that came with a Corona beer with lime.

The chicken taco was packed with shredded meat, but it was oddly bland despite a mixture of tomatoes, onions, peppers and cilantro on top. The brisket one had great flavor from the meat itself and its subtle barbecue sauce. It, too, had a thick-cut pico de gallo on top.

One nice thing about Lulu’s is that customers get a free bowl of white popcorn right away. It’s cooked in coconut oil, which gives it a better flavor.

Creighton owns Lulu’s 13 with Charlie Burrows and Linda Young. Burrows and Young own 14 restaurants, including nine Lucky’s 13 restaurants in Minnesota and North Dakota. Creighton is a partner in five of them.

Burrows and Young also own a handful of other restaurant brands, including the original Me & Julio in Hastings, Minnesota, and one that opened in 2016 in Fitchburg.

The restaurant at East Towne was originally going to be called Lucky’s 13, like the others, but the owners changed the name because Madison already has the sports bar and brew pub Lucky’s 1313 on Regent Street.

Burrows and Young opened their first Lucky’s in Mendota, Minnesota, on Highway 13, which is where it gets the 13 in its name, Creighton said.

As to whether anyone’s ever ordered Madison’s “Hangover Cure,” Lulu’s general manager Jake Ayers said Lulu’s has sold five to 10 since opening. “Normally on Sunday mornings,” he said.

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